WHICH EOAD? 203 



itual activities to dwindle and slink out of sight, 

 because they are uncalled for and unappreciated. 

 The atmosphere is created by the conversation in 

 the family circle, the books on the shelves, the 

 papers on the table, the visitors in the home, the 

 invited companions of the children, the home ex- 

 tended in school and Church, and the undercur- 

 rents of ambitions and ideals which dominate and 

 spontaneously come to expression in all the off- 

 guard moments of life. Keep thy home with all 

 diligence; for out of it are the character issues of 

 thy children is a good modern version of one of 

 the profoundest sayings in literature. One author 

 makes the sweeping statement that "all of the 

 environmental conditions of the growing youth 

 are faulty, save in the case of the fortunate ones 

 the moral atmosphere of a proper home, the 

 great inhibitor of all moral evils." (Lydston: 

 "Diseases of Society," 403.) 



